Petrol Tensions.....

There has been quite a bit of comment in the transport industry lately concerning the rate at which rural garages are closing. The small independents are finding it increasingly tough to exist when they appear to be little more than tax collectors for the Exchequer. In 1974, there were an estimated 74,000 petrol stations in the UK. By 2000, that figure had fallen to 12,000 - and today there are just 9,300 left. Of course, in urban areas the supermarkets are to blame for selling their petrol as loss leaders - and hence closing down the opposition - but in rural areas, with petrol profit margins increasingly being squeezed, there seems little alternative to closing the petrol station and flogging it off to a red bracered whizz-kid for conversion to a second home...

You'd think the government would recognise the problem and attempt to address it - especially as public transport in rural areas is non existent.....

No surprises then to read this from the Petrol Retailers Association's 'Forecourt' magazine....

'England and Wales also need to catch up with Scotland, where a grant scheme is available for forecourt operators from the Scottish Executive. It is available to help them with capital investment.

The grants are part of the Rural Petrol Stations Grant Scheme (RPSGS), which is one of three grant schemes which make up the Scottish Executive's Rural Transport Fund - set up in 1998 to improve transport in rural areas of Scotland.

The Scottish Executive recognises that cars are a necessity for many people in rural Scotland and it is therefore vital for residents to be able to access a forecourt relatively easily.

According to its website, the scheme was set up "to support the retention of a sustainable and accessible network of fuel supply throughout rural Scotland".

I don't think this could ever be voted through at Westminster (on behalf of the bumkins south of Carlisle) though.... The Scots MPs would never allow it.